After our wonderful time diving in Palau, a dozen Shootout participants flew 50 300 (or 400 or whatever) miles to Yap in pursuit of manta photographs. We were hosted by the Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers, and had the pleasure of meeting Mike Veitch, who is one of our moderators here at Wetpixel.

Unfortunately, the Shootout participants only had fleeting glimpses of mantas during their three days of diving, and I only had a single good manta pass during my 6 days. But such is the nature of nature. Last year at this time, mantas were seen in groups of up to 30 (!).

On Saturday, we headed out to Kadai Village, where Stan (our village host) showed us the fruits of a cultural preservation non-profit that has been trying to keep elements of the old ways alive. During our short stay, we enjoyed fresh fruit and coconut juice, conversation with Stan about Yap's history and culture, a coconut tree climb by a local boy, and a traditional bamboo-stick dance. We shot about a billion photos.

After everyone else left, I took advantage of Yap's wonderful mandarinfish dives, where single coral heads were producing 6 or more of the beautiful little dragonets, all mating around sunset and then again swimming up into the water column once darkness had settled in (attracted to the lights, perhaps? this is strange behavior for mandarins). They slowly rose up through open water and settled, using both my camera and mask as shelter; it was all I could do to make sure that they were all returned to the safety of the branching coral! I had never seen anything like it.

In the south outside the lagoon, Yap has a vertical wall with thousands and thousands of pink anthias milling about, darting into crevices and slowly spreading back out radially after each sign of danger. Small groups of blue jacks patrolled the wall's ledge, regularly kicking off blindingly-quick attack runs through the schools and into the holes in which the anthias had retreated.

Both above and below the water, Yap is as different from Palau as any two islands could be. I can't believe they are so close to each other, and definitely am going to return to try for mantas again.

Underwater Photos by Eric Cheng

Crinoid and lionfish (Yap Cavern)

Kathy (Yap Cavern)

Mel (Yap Cavern)

Jacks hunt amoung huge schools of anthias (Yap Cavern)

Anthias everywhere! (Yap Cavern)

A wreck dive in Yap (Gilman's Wall)

Anthias (Gilman's Wall)

Jaxie and Catherine (Magic Kingdom)

Healthy acroporas sp. coral grows back after being wiped out by a typhoon (Magic Kingdom)

Marty photographs coral (Magic Kingdom)

Angela with a Light & Motion D100 (Magic Kingdom)

Catherine wears my devil hood! (Magic Kingdom)

Crown of thorns -- nasty, but colorful (Magic Kingdom)

Randy (Mi'l Channel)

Mel dreams of mantas (Mi'l Channel)

Mike Veitch writes, "Eric Who?" (Mi'l Channel)

Mike steals my camera and shoots a photo of me (Mi'l Channel)

Marty Steinberg with camera (Mi'l Channel)

Jacks near Manta Ridge (Mi'l Channel)

White-tip shark among soft coral (Mi'l Channel)

My one manta ray pass (Mi'l Channel)

Anemonefish aerate eggs (Mi'l Channel)

Pajama cardinalfish (O'Keefe's Island)

Female mandarinfish (O'Keefe's Island)

Male mandarinfish (O'Keefe's Island)

Dome ports collide (Mi'l Channel)

A cleaning station (Mi'l Channel)

Mike Veitch and stone money (Mi'l Channel)

Mike Veitch, under waves

Waves are fun!

Mating mandarinfish

Mandarinfish

Mandarinfish

Eric, eric, and eric

Topside Photos by Eric Cheng

Bill Acker greets the Digital Shootout participants

The Manta Ray Bay Hotel and Yap Divers

Hanging out on the top of the Mnuw, Manta Ray's Pinisi schooner/restaurant

Hanging out on the top of the Mnuw, Manta Ray's Pinisi schooner/restaurant

Hanging out on the top of the Mnuw, Manta Ray's Pinisi schooner/restaurant

Mike Veitch presents a slide show

Watching a slide show

Catherine and Eric

Mike Veitch, Dan Baldocchi, and a full moon

Dan gets leid (Kadai Village)

Everyone has a camera! (Kadai Village)

Angela tries to bite Catherine (Kadai Village)

Eric, Jaxie, and Marty post with Stan and stone money (Kadai Village)

The women of the digital shootout, with Stan and stone money (Kadai Village)

totally flabbergasted at what you produced behind our backs... you certainly are a whizzzzkid. fun to look at all those memories.
we miss the whole excitement, slavery, indoctrination and wonderful company already. switzerland is nice, but diving's better. and yezzzz i am sweet and juicy, but monsieur cheng, you did not have to proclaim this to the whole world.....Posted by catnap on 2006-04-19 05:26:47

Something must be wrong w/ that Professional Photographer(TM)'s camera - it's only using 1/2 the megapixels :-)Posted by James Wiseman on 2006-04-17 13:38:55

Eric,
Just wanted to give a shout out to Dan.
Let him know that I've got my FCP editing course ready and am wrapping up the HD workflow chapters. I'll be teaching in the Spring. So I am ready to help edit his footage when he is back in Chicago!
VensonPosted by Venson on 2006-04-07 10:59:19

Awesome, and here I am at work. Sign me up for next year!Posted by loftus on 2006-04-05 11:22:46

Hello Shootout staff,
I wish that I was there with you guys.The images that you have posted Eric are great.
I have been looking for Berks booties on E-Bay in the vintage bronzed section but have had no luck finding them.Do you know if he is keeping those worn out relics?
Keep up the great work!
Hope to join you guys on the next Shoot out.
MichaelPosted by mcarey on 2006-04-04 22:21:05

Hi Eric,
Say Hi to everyone - wish I could be there! Ask Mel how my Nikon 17-35AFS lens is doing :-) I hope she's taking good care of my baby...Posted by James Wiseman on 2006-04-04 08:41:50